Dems Wake Up to Troubling 'Brilliant Stranger'

The Democratic Convention was plagued with an “air of unease” about Barack Obama, a candidate whose character and work few can vouch for, Charles Krauthammer writes in the Washington Post. The “anxiety was that the party was nominating a man of many gifts but precious few accomplishments—bearing even fewer witnesses," he adds. The Clintons and Joe Biden offered little comfort.

After a long primary season, Hillary Clinton was able to provide only “one line of testimony: 'I have come to know this man, to admire this man,'" while Bill offered no evidence to back up his statement that Obama was “ready to lead," writes Krauthammer. "The palpable apprehension is that the anointed is a brilliant stranger with whom the Democrats had a torrid affair"—and now they’re waking up from it, and wondering who they married, he notes. (More Barack Obama stories.)